Plans for a wind farm beside Fife Airport have split opinion among councillors.
Glenrothes area committee has agreed to disagree on Infinis Ltd’s proposal for five turbines at Westfield, a former opencast site near Kinglassie.
The matter will be decided by Fife Council’s planning committee when it meets on Tuesday.
Development manager Jim Birrell said aviation safety was the “single issue” to be considered as matters such as noise, visual amenity and threat to wildlife had not created any significant problems.
An aviation safety report ordered by the council had stated the turbines would pose a “major safety hazard” for planes flying to, from and near the airport.
The report suggested the turbines could have tragic consequences if an inexperienced pilot lost altitude and failed to clear them.
However there were also submissions from consultants backing the application.
“I’d be happier if there was at least some sort of consensus from the consultants,” said Councillor Bill Kay.
Councillor Peter Grant backed the proposal, despite the planning recommendation that it be thrown out on the grounds of aviation safety. However he said there was no clear guidance on how the council should proceed, and the local authority had been put in a difficult position.
Mr Grant said, “I’m glad I’m not on the planning committee.”
Councillor Ross Vettraino also supported the application, but Councillor Kay Morrison said the “precautionary” approach taken by the case officer should be followed.
She said, “I still feel we should be supporting the recommendation… and adopting this precautionary principle.”
The area committee was asked to forward its comments ahead of the planning decision.
It was to be highlighted that there was no formal agreement that Westfield was to be used as a target area when pilots were learning emergency landings.
Information was requested about the number of pilots being trained at the airport and the number of jobs the development would create.
The committee was also to be made aware of residents’ expectations about community gain. It was ascertained that communities would not be automatically entitled to any payments resulting from the development.Largoward turbinesA potential wind farm developer has warned that small turbines may waste public resources and that bigger often means better.
Gordon Pay, who is hoping to put up two 100m turbines at Largoward, questioned the efficiency of small turbines erected by rural businesses. Fife Council regularly receives planning applications for turbines under 50m in rural locations such as farms.
The council and Scottish Natural Heritage take a different approach to turbines under 50m from those over the threshold.
Mr Pay said, “I am concerned about a number of recent applications for what may be relatively small, but a commercial wind farm turbine.”
He said that an older, cheaper type of turbine was often being used.
He said, “They may be an entirely logical choice for the rural businesses concerned, and provide needed diversification, but they are not the best choice when a wider perspective is taken.
“The two big problems are that it is not simply turbines turning that we need, but the generation of significant quantities of renewable energy that is the government policy-and the fact that someone has to pay for it.”
“A recent application draws a size comparison with the Largoward windmills proposal. This doesn’t make a fair like-for-like comparison.
“To replace the output of the two larger turbines proposed there would require to be 25 or more of the smaller ones.”